Why December's hirings and firings felt very Trumpy


Of the more than 300,000 new jobs that were added in December, manufacturing saw the most significant boost in its employment rate, while other industries like broadcasting weren't so lucky.
After the Labor Department released its report Friday, Bloomberg took a closer look at the numbers to break down which specific fields are actually gaining and losing jobs. What they found will certainly please President Trump, who repeatedly promised in his 2016 campaign to bring back manufacturing jobs; the highest growth rate in December was in miscellaneous nondurable goods manufacturing, which rose 1.80 percent and added 5,500 jobs. The manufacturing industry overall had its best net job gains last year since 1997, CNBC reports.
The heavy and civil engineering construction industry grew at a slightly smaller rate in December, 1.57 percent, but added more jobs overall: 16,300 of them. The logging industry also added jobs at a rate of 1.29 percent, while petroleum and coal products jobs grew at 1.13 percent and coal mining jobs grew at 1.13 percent.
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On the flip side, sporting goods, hobby, book and music stores lost 9,400 jobs, a 1.74 percent decline. Nondepository credit intermediation jobs fell by 4,500 (a 0.72 percent decline), the U.S. Postal Service lost 4,400 jobs (a 0.72 percent decline), couriers and messengers lost 5,200 jobs (a 0.67 percent decline), and broadcasting lost 1,200 jobs (a 0.45 percent decline).
Read more, and check out an in-depth breakdown of every industry's employment growth, at Bloomberg.
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Brendan worked as a culture writer at The Week from 2018 to 2023, covering the entertainment industry, including film reviews, television recaps, awards season, the box office, major movie franchises and Hollywood gossip. He has written about film and television for outlets including Bloody Disgusting, Showbiz Cheat Sheet, Heavy and The Celebrity Cafe.
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